If Ralph was smarter
by furmanator
Summary: when i was reading this book, i noticed things that ralph did that i just wanted to scream 'stupid, stupid, stupid.' heres what i think would have happened if he made the almost obvious smarter choice at the end


Chris Furman

Honors Composition and Literature

LOTF FanFiction

_From the top of the towering rocks came the incomprehensible reply._

_"Roger sharpened a stick at both ends."_

_Roger sharpened a stick at both ends. Ralph tried to attach a meaning to this but could not. He used all the bad words he could think of in a fit of temper that passed into yawning. How long could you go without sleep? He yearned for a bed and sheets – but the only whiteness here was the slow spilt milk, luminous round the rock forty feet below, where Piggy had fallen. Piggy was everywhere, was on this neck, was become terrible in darkness and death. If Piggy were to come back now out of the water, with his empty head – Ralph whimpered and yawned like a littlun. The stick in his hand became a crutch on which he reeled._

_Then he tensed again. There were voices on the top of the Castle Rock. Samneric were arguing with someone. But the ferns and the grass were near. That was the place to be in, hidden, and next to the thicket that would serve for tommorow's hideout. Here – and his hands touched grass – was a place to be in for the night, not far from the tribe, so that if the horrors of the supernatural emerged one could at least mix with humans for the time being, even if it meant…_

_What did it mean? A stick sharpened at both ends. What was there in that? They had thrown spears and missed; all but one. Perhaps they would miss next time too._

Suddenly Ralph realized his mistake.

"I can't hide here," he silently screamed. Roger may already be torturing the twins, and he was not going to bet his life that they would not talk under the pressure. Why, he would too in the same situation! He needed to find a new hiding place and fast.

Silently he slipped away into the jungle. He looked long into the night. As he began to see dawn's first light, he began to panic. Suddenly, the pig's head appeared out of the jungle. Then he understood – a stick sharpened at both ends. They meant to kill him and…give his head to…the beast! That was it! He would hide at the top of the mountain. After all, as Simon has said, "What else is there to do?"

By midmorning Ralph had finished his climb, neither seeing nor hearing anything that resembled the beast. Here, he would be safe. He laid down on the hard rock and began to sleep.

After only a few hours, he awakened to the smell of smoke. Peering out over the ledge, he saw that almost the entire forest surrounding the new tribe's camp was aflame. Indeed, he was happy he had moved; Roger had indeed forced them to talk. Who knows what would have happened to him had he stayed in the meadow?

Ralph cursed. He had no way to get food, and he was already hungry. Well, that could wait. Right now, all he needed was sleep.

When Ralph awakened, it was almost pitch black. He soon got used to the dark, as it was a cloudless night and the moon was almost three quarters full. He had awakened from the pangs of hunger in his belly. If he didn't get food soon, he would die. Ralph decided to go down and at least get some fruit, and maybe even steal some meat, if there was still some to be had.

Ralph made his way down and back to the old shelters. There, luckily, he found quite a few fruit trees untouched by the fire. He ate ravenously. Taking as many back as he could carry, he climbed back up the mountain. Feeling restless, and not yet tired, Ralph made his way down towards the tribe. Staying as quiet as possible he came within three feet of the sentries. They were fast asleep. He reached up and grabbed a hunk of meat from one of them. In the dark and with their face paint on, he didn't recognize either one of the two. As he grabbed the meat, the sentry stirred and went to take a bite of the nonexistent meat, he bit down hard on his finger. Yelping, he jumped up, glaring at the other.

"Maurice!" yelled the sentry, shaking Maurice. "You took my dinner!"

"No I didn't, Bill! You must have eaten it," Maurice mumbled groggily.

"I would know!" Bill yelled and jumped on Maurice. Maurice and Bill were roughly the same size, and though Bill had the element of surprise, Maurice put up a good fight. They were wrestling for a good ten minutes. It was a miracle for Ralph that they didn't wake up the entire camp, and probably would have had it not been the middle of the night. Presently they broke apart and fell silent. Maurice sighed.

"I wish Samneric would come. They're at least an hour late."

"Yes. Why don't you go wake them up?" says Bill.

"Well…what if that Ralph boy is around?" says Maurice and shudders. "O-or the beast?" Bill snorts.

"That's nonsense! Now go get Samneric so we can get some sleep!" Maurice walked off, grumbling to himself. Ralph can hardly believe his luck! A chance to talk with Samneric – his only friends left on the island. At the very least, they could give him some information. Maurice returned, with him two boys of equal stature. Bill and Maurice quickly left, as Samneric settled in. Slowly Ralph came behind the twins, and reached around to cover their mouths. Both jumped in surprise, but stopped as soon as they realized who it was.

"Ralph! I thought that…"

"…you had died in the fire. You shouldn't be here. We're sorry that we told them where you were, we were…"

"…tortured, we didn't mean to…" Ralph interrupted.

"It's all right – I got away in time, didn't I? Has anything new happened?"

Samneric looked at each other. "Well…nothing much new has happened…

"…except for one thing…Roger has been gaining more control. Even Jack…"

"…is beginning to be frightened of him." Ralph nodded, having long since realized that this was going to happen. Suddenly he realized that it was almost dawn, and that he needed to get back to his hideout.

"Alright, I must go. Keep me up to date, will you?"

"Sure thing," one of the twins said. "We always have the…"

"…shift from middle of the night till dawn," finished the other. Ralph thanked them and quietly made his way up to the mountain, where he slept.

A few days passed. Ralph began to change his habits and become fairly nocturnal – this was the only time he knew that he would not find unwanted visitors. He went down to the camp, and began to talk with Samneric.

"Anything new?" he whispered.

"Yes, big news. Roger kicked Jack out of the tribe. Roger is the chief now, and tommorow…"

"…we will hunt Jack!" Ralph shuddered. He felt a touch of sorrow for his enemy, having been hunted himself. He thanked the twins, and made a plan. He would find Jack, and befriend him. He searched all the places in the jungle, finding him nowhere. He began to despair – light was already poking through the trees. He thought to look down the beach one last time, and thought he spotted someone far down by the old shelters. Sure enough, it was Jack, curled up in a fetal position in the old meeting place, slowly rocking back and forth. He barely moved as Ralph approached. Ralph sat down beside him.

"Jack! Come with me! Hurry – they will hunt you!" Ralph said. Jack finally noticed Ralph, and looked up in surprise.

"How could they hunt me? I was their chief…" Jack mumbled. Ralph rolled his eyes.

"So was I, wasn't I? That doesn't change a thing. Come with me, quickly!" Jack staggered to his feet. He and Ralph walked through the jungle as quickly as possible with Jack leaning on Ralph. They looked like two old men, not like the kids they really were. They made it up to the top of the mountain with many stops. To Ralph, it was a miracle they weren't spotted. Jack didn't care at all. By the time they made it up to the top of the mountain, it was almost noon. Ralph looked behind them, and thought he spotted boys running along the beach. It was a good thing they had gone there first. Otherwise, they would be captured or killed right now. They climbed over the ridge and collapsed, both fully exhausted.

It was twilight when Ralph awakened. Jack still hadn't stirred. Ralph looked at him, still not exactly sure why he had saved Jack. He did know that he needed people on his side in order to survive, but still – of all people to have an alliance with! Jack stirred, and slowly opened his eyes, still not sure where he was. Ralph had some fruit left over from the night before, and placed some in Jack's mouth. Grabbing it, he ate ravenously, eyeing Ralph suspiciously. He wiped his mouth.

"I thought you were dead."

"I would have been, and no thanks to you, Jack. As a matter of fact, you would be dead right now – if it weren't for me." Jack nodded.

"Thank you, Ralph" Jack conceded. "But – why did you do it? I did nothing for you at all."

"I know that Jack. I also know that I can't survive forever sneaking out at night. I need people on my side if we are to gain control back." They were both quiet for awhile. Suddenly Jack spoke up.

"I know what we could do!" Jack had an interesting gleam in his eye. "We could sneak in at night and kill Roger! He's the main reason this trouble started." Ralph shook his head slowly.

"We can't do that. It would put us as low as him. And we can't be sure that no one thinks he is a good chief. Some of the kids may be loyal to him, and may try to avenge his death. Maybe we could – yes…that might work…we could sneak in in the middle of the night, and capture Roger!" Jack thought about this for a minute.

"Yes…and then we could take him away…and cage him!" Both boys laughed and Ralph even did a headstand. They decided that the night after tommorow would be the day. That night, Ralph and Jack snuck into camp and stole two spears. They also constructed a trap out of the 'creepers' in the forest to keep Roger in. The trap was placed at the top of the mountain.

That day, Ralph lay awake thinking for a long time. He was very surprised at the turn of events. Just less than two weeks ago, he was in charge of this mob. How quickly things could change! His last thought as he fell asleep was that this would all be better tommorow. They would have Roger captured, and the tribe would know for sure that there was no beast.

That night, they snuck up to camp soon after midnight. There was a full moon, so it was very easy to see where they were going. The two eached grabbed a twin, making sure that they couldn't talk, and quietly explained their plan. The twins agreed to help. One of them held up a finger – in the moonlight, Ralph couldn't tell who it was. He thought it was Eric.

"Roger sleeps over there." He pointed away from the others a little, further back in the cave. They quickly made their way over to him. They jumped on him without warning. He got up and bit the hand that was holding his mouth.

"Helllpmph!" Roger began to yell. It was cut short not by another open hand, but by a fist to the mouth that knocked him unconcious. The boys quickly carried Roger to the top of the mountain and placed him in their trap. They began rejoicing, and cheering each other. Ralph looked to the horizon.

"Look! It's almost dawn. We need to finish our plan. Samneric, will you stay up here guarding Roger?" They nodded together. "Good. Do not let him out – keep an eye on him at all times. I am trusting you." They nodded again solemnly. They would not let him out of their sight – not now that he had tortured them especially.

"Jack, you and I will be the ones to go down to the tribe. We need to have a plan to make sure that we don't argue with each other. How about this – we will both lead the tribe. We will be equals. There will be no more fighting!" After a brief hesitation, Jack nodded.

"I just want to go home," Jack said.

"Don't I know it? The only way we can do this is if we work together. There will be no more dying!" With that they walked down the mountain together towards the camp.

They found the camp filled with confusion. Having no one to take orders from, they had begun to wrestle amongst themselves. They had no leader, and no one even was trying. Ralph and Jack appeared as if out of nowhere from the bushes. Suddenly everyone stopped moving. All eyes turned towards them. A littlun came up to them and touched Ralph on the arm.

"Are you the beast?" Ralph laughed.

"There is no beast! Jack and I have been on the top of the mountain this entire time, hiding from you. If anything was the beast, it was Roger, and he will not harm anyone anymore."

"Yes!" Jack exclaimed. "We will all be one tribe again, and this time, Ralph and I will both lead it." Ralph sensed some shifting in the crowd – obviously some didn't like this decision.

"Unless anyone here has a better idea…" he said softly. No one spoke up. After a few moments Maurice spoke up.

"We're sorry that we hunted you. It was all Roger's idea…" He fell silent. Ralph and Jack looked at each other.

"We know that…Roger was the beast. He is caged at the top of the mountain. How many of you were untouched by Roger," asked Jack. No one moved. "How many of you were harmed by him, physically and mentally?" After a moment he continued. "And how many of you wish to give him your regards?" All the boys cheered.

"C'mon," Ralph said. Yelling and screaming, they all ran up the top of the mountain.

When they arrived, Roger lay whimpering like a dog in his cage. The boys began rattling the cage, and prodding him with spears. Ralph couldn't help himself – he let it go on for awhile. Finally he raised a hand.

"Enough! We must decide what to do with this savage. I don't want to kill him, because then we would be just as bad as he is. I believe we should make him our pet, caged forever, or at least until we get rescued." This was agreed upon, and, having realized that there was no beast, the only reason they had sentries was for Roger.

About a month later, Ralph was sitting on the top of the ledge, looking out over the water eating a chunk of pig. At the horizon, he spotted a ship. At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him. As it came closer, he saw that he was not mistaken.

"A ship! A ship! Quickly, put green stuff on the fire!" The boys closest quickly obliged. They all ran down the slope, except for Jack and Ralph. They stayed behind, to let Roger go. As Ralph untied the cage, Roger snarled.

"Get away from me…" he spat at them. "I don't need you – I don't need anybody. Untie me and leave." Jack and Ralph looked at each other. Finally Jack nodded.

"Alright – stay on this island if you wish. I want nothing more to do with you." And with that, they walked down the mountain.

There was a ship's captain on the beach when they came. He was talking to some of the children. He spotted Jack and Ralph coming out of the woods, and went over to talk with them.

"Are there any more?" he asked. Ralph shook his head.

"Any dead?"

"Three," mumbled Jack. The captains eyebrows went up.

"Well, we can find out the details later. Lets get a move on." As the ship pulled away from the island, Ralph looked back – at the shelters, at the barely visible scar, and finally at the mountain. As he looked toward the mountain, Ralph thought he could see a figure and maybe even an evil cackle. Ralph shuddered and turned around. He was finally on his way home.


End file.
